Railways enter semis

Hockey Senior Women's Nationals

Indian Railways entered the semifinals while Karnataka bowed out despite registering a win in their last Pool ‘A’ ties of the 6th Hockey India Senior Women National  (A Division) championship here.

Railways thumped Hockey Patiala 12-0 while the home side edged Uttar Pradesh Hockey 2-1. Karnataka finished second in their group with six points from three games while Railways comfortably took the top spot with nine points from three matches.

In the semifinals, Railways will face Madhya Pradesh Hockey Academy, who drubbed Hockey Assam 14-0 on Thursday in their last Pool ‘D’ tie.

Meanwhile, Hockey Odisha reached the semifinals after drawing their Pool ‘B’ game 1-1 against Bhopal on Thursday. Odisha will face Hockey Punjab in the other semifinal tie.

After an action-packed first quarter, which saw three goals in a space of 20 minutes, the Karnataka-UP game came to a standstill as both the teams struggled to break each other’s defences for the remaining period. Nisha opened the scoring for Karnataka in the fourth minute and Rashmi Pandyanda added another in the 16th minute after Diksha Tiwari had equalised for Uttar Pradesh in the 11th minute of the first quarter.

Friday is a rest day. The semifinals will be on Saturday.

Results: Pool A: Hockey Karnataka: 2 (Nisha 4th, Rashmi Pandyanda 16th) bt UP Hockey: 1 (Diksha Tiwari 11th); Railway Sports Promotion Board: 12 (Anupa Barla 4th, 24th, 39th, Ritusha Kumari 5th, Soundharya 15th, 52nd, Navneet Kaur 18th, 28th, 48th, Neha 19th, Manjit Kaur 42nd, Anima Minz 55th) bt Hockey Patiala: 0.
Pool B: Hockey MP: 4 (Shivani Singh 23rd, 43rd, 49th, Reena Khokar 44th) bt Hockey Jharkhand: 1 (Rukmani 41st);  Hockey Odisha: 1 (Birajini 32nd) drew with Hockey Bhopal: 1 (Shivani Bisht 60th);

Pool C: The Mumbai Hockey Ass Ltd: 1 (Ranjita Sanasam 33rd) bt SAI: 0;
Pool D: MPHA: 14 (Sadhana 5th, 22nd, 38th, 43rd, Ishika Choudhary 11th, 13th, Anuja Singh 14th, 52nd, Jyoti Pal 21st, Neeraj Rana 28th, 31st, 33rd, Karishma Singh 36th, Karishma Yadav 47th) bt Assam Hockey: 0; Hockey Haryana: 16 (Monika Dahiya 3rd, 8th, 16th, 26th, 57th, Rina Devi 11th, 20th, 51st, Nicky 15th, Jyoti Dahiya 17th, 49th, Jyoti Gupta 18th, 36th, 52nd, Manjeet 29th, Sonika 47th) bt Hockey Maharashtra: 0.

Semifinal line-up: RSPB vs Madhya Pradesh Hockey Academy; Hockey Odisha vs Hockey Punjab.